


with that coffee shop love (oh, i can’t get enough)

by starryluvs



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Fluff, awkward gay flirting included, chuuves are soft, lip and soul are only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 13:11:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17122013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryluvs/pseuds/starryluvs
Summary: When Jiwoo’s assignment was due in five minutes and her laptop a sliver away from its demise, she didn’t think her saving grace could come in the form of a crowded café with only one power outlet and an intimidatingly attractive stranger sitting right in front of her only way out of an eternity of college clowning.Or, the one where chivalrous strangers make for good conversation.





	with that coffee shop love (oh, i can’t get enough)

**Author's Note:**

> sooo, it's my first time posting on ao3 and i really hope you guys enjoy :)

Jiwoo was not having a good day.

 _Sure_ , she had a track record for being the most grossly optimistic person you could ever meet, but even sunshine ran into cloudy days. This was that sort of day. Metaphorically speaking, because as powerful as Jiwoo’s smile was, it being upside down did nothing to curb the pleasant summer sun. _God, if only the weather could read her mind, they'd already be in a torrential rainstorm with no escape in sight._   

She ground her teeth _._ _Next person in my way is getting their butt whooped_.

By now it was glaringly obvious that she was cranky and frantic, the worst kind of both worlds. Definitely not her usual cheery, happy-go-lucky self. 

Her head whipped back and forth as she chewed on her bottom lip in frustration. Random street goers spared quick glances at her reddened face, only to look away in fear of being served a full course platter of pain, courtesy of the tiny, oversized Hello Kitty sweater clad girl that was Kim Jiwoo. 

She was never the violent type per se, but she was too on edge to care. She had an assignment due in five minutes. _Five gosh darned minutes_ and she _needed_ the extra credit to pull her unfortunate behind through this class.

All in all, Jiwoo was screwed. She couldn’t cute her way out of this one. No way. Nada. Zilch. Not even with her best sad penguin eyes. Her professor was notorious for being a hardass so the most she would get was a one-way ticket straight to hell. (Which may or may not have included convoluted nicknames and enough extra homework to last an entire lifetime.) 

She shuddered remembering the last time someone got late when turning in their work. That poor girl got clowned for days and it was just plain terrifying. Being called ‘Ramen Head’ for a week or two didn’t sound so bad to Jiwoo until she saw the unwilling victim on campus grounds wearing a cup of steaming hot noodles that, (Jiwoo felt a bit mean admitting) looked uncannily like the crop of blonde hair on her head as a reluctant fashion statement. And that was the tale of how Jung Jinsoul became a legend. A legend that would go down in the history books of regrettable college shenanigans. A legend Jiwoo _did not_ want to be.

She was subjected to enough of Jungeun’s clowning already. Her best friend didn't need more ammunition. Imagine getting stuck with a name like Ramen Head for the rest of your campus life, yeah, no. Jiwoo didn’t want that.

And that brought her to her current predicament. Her laptop was on the verge of death and Jiwoo had just about three minutes left until she had to turn her assignment in. She wasn’t usually the one to make hasty decisions, but what was she to do? Just throw in the towel? She'd sooner fork up her vintage sticker collection.

Narrowly avoiding the passing pedestrians, Jiwoo zipped along a row of tiny bakeries, stationary shops and other cute places that would totally be her jam if she wasn’t teetering on the thin line of her sanity. 

She needed that power outlet and only one of the buildings she zoomed past looked like it could meet her dire requirement. Out of the bunch of carefully decorated and aesthetically pleasing establishments she had skidded by, imagine her surprise when the cozy looking café tucked in within the corner of the street was what caught her eye. 

 _Bingo_.

Jiwoo brightened at the sound of a bell chiming as she walked in, but as her gaze traveled across the room she came to an unfortunate realization. A realization that dimmed the faint light of hope she had left on her face.

The café she scrambled into was crowded. Like _really_ freaking crowded.

Her eyes flew across the spotless white walls, hoping to catch the sight of the godsent that would be a power outlet. But when her gaze caught onto what she was looking for, Jiwoo knew she had to be more screwed than when she began.

 _Oh no, she’s hot_ was the only intelligible thought Jiwoo's mind could conjure up when she locked eyes with who she assumed was a being sculpted by Aphrodite herself, because  _hot damn that sort of bone structure should be illegal_.

It was in a quiet corner at the back end of the café with a table for two with only one occupant sitting right in front of the only plug in the whole café that wasn't in use. The girl at the table spared Jiwoo a glance before returning to the book between her fingers. Normally, being the bundle of confidence and positive energy Jiwoo was, she would have no problem with bounding over to politely ask the girl to switch seats but _gosh, Jiwoo couldn't even breathe._

She shook herself out of her angel induced trance, swallowing uneasily. Two minutes left. She had to do something. Something Jiwoo wished she really didn’t have to do. She sucked in a breath and power walked straight towards where the other girl sat, poised in a way that was definitely more graceful than anything Jiwoo had ever done in her life.

Jiwoo stared her down from her spot across the girl's table. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

 _Oh_ _boy_ , Jiwoo was totally screwed.

She could see the stranger’s long lashes and plush pink lips up close and _way_ too personal than she would have liked, considering Jiwoo was about five seconds away from combusting on the spot. The stranger watched her questioningly with a slight tilt of her head. 

“Can I help you?” 

Jiwoo wasn't able to stop the rapid fire ramble of words before they had already left her mouth. 

“Just because you’re stupidly attractive doesn’t mean you get a free pass, buddy. You better get your butt moving or things are gonna get real ugly, _real fast_.”

The stranger quirked a brow, seemingly amused by Jiwoo’s distress.

“You think this is funny?? My reputation is at stake here! Please throw me a bone, I get that you might be busy but I’m _literally_ desperate. I’m also physically incapable of actually fighting you, seeing as you’re probably like a foot taller than me, so please do me a favor and give me the plug. I’ll make it up to you right after, I swear!” Jiwoo pleaded, putting on her best puppy eyes.

(Which was, all in all, pretty darn hard considering she had to maintain eye contact with a drop-dead gorgeous girl that Jiwoo was pretty sure modeled as a day job. Hey, just because Jiwoo was panicking didn’t mean she forgot she was super gay.) 

The stranger wordlessly moved to the seat away from the power socket and Jiwoo scrambled to salvage whatever was left of her assignment. With a frantic mash of keys, Jiwoo sighed in relief, slumping over her laptop in a tired mess.

“Rough day?” 

Jiwoo glanced up from the table. The girl she basically yelled at and shooed away when she just minding her own business was still there, brows creased in concern. Jeez, as if Jiwoo couldn’t feel any worse, the girl was an absolute sweetheart despite the horrible circumstances. 

“You don't know the half of it,” groaned Jiwoo, rubbing her bleary eyes with her palms. 

“Wanna talk about it over coffee? My name’s Sooyoung by the way,” she chirped, an easy smile across her face.

Jiwoo’s cheeks flamed. 

“Um, sure! Thanks a bunch for helping me out back there. I'm Jiwoo and please, I'm buying, it’s the least I can do after disturbing you,” she said, fighting the blush that threatened to take over her face. 

“Ah ah ah, no can do, cutie. I promise, it’s no big deal. Let me treat you. You look like you need it,” Sooyoung chided, tutting Jiwoo with her finger.

Jiwoo sputtered like the panicked gay she knew she was.

Uh, _cutie_.  _Freaking cutie?_ _Was Sooyoung flirting with her right after she just embarrassed herself like some sort of colossal idiot?_ She did not expect her day to go this way. Not on her life. To say that Jiwoo was surprised didn’t even begin to cover it. 

“Um, are you sure? You’re being awfully nice to a stranger like me…” 

Sooyoung beamed, flashing her pearly whites. It took Jiwoo a hot minute to recover from the attack of the _freaking bunny teeth_ , but, lucky for her, Sooyoung didn't seem to notice Jiwoo's soul leaving her body. “Course! Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet. Now how do you like your coffee? I usually get mine black but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like that. Hell, I hate it too. I only drink it to stay awake,” she finished with a chuckle.

 _Huh_ , Sooyoung was more of dork than she let on. A charming dork, but a dork nonetheless. It helped put Jiwoo at ease, even a little. She was still a bit paranoid though. A smile like that could, quite possibly be weaponized.  

“A decaf vanilla latte, please,” Jiwoo answered, eyes wandering as she bit her lip in a daze. Hey, it wasn’t like it was intentional. Sooyoung had a very distracting face. (And she also smelled really nice, not like Jiwoo would ever tell her either of those things.)

Sooyoung stood up from her seat and walked across to the café counter. Jiwoo’s eyes followed her movement shyly as Sooyoung stood around, tapping on her wrist in a rhythm Jiwoo couldn’t recognize while she waited for their order to be ready.

Jiwoo shook herself, tearing her gaze away from Sooyoung to look at the book she’d left on the table. Now, Jiwoo was never a nosy person to begin with and things had the tendency to go over her head sometimes because of it. But for some reason she couldn’t ignore, her hands moved on their own to lift up the book she had seen Sooyoung reading just a while ago.

 _‘Aphrodite means Death.’ Oh_ _wow, the irony._

“I see you found my book.” 

Jiwoo slammed the book back on the table. Maybe a little too loud as almost half the café turned towards them at the sound. 

 _Gosh, Jiwoo, why are you so freaking embarrassing?_  

“Whoops, didn’t mean to scare you! Coffee’s done by the way,” laughed Sooyoung, passing the steaming latte into Jiwoo’s hands. Jiwoo felt a jolt as their fingertips brushed against each other.

 _Oh no_.

The last thing Jiwoo wanted to do was catch feelings. Crushing on someone you just met was a definite no no. Sooyoung could be a serial killer for all she knew. A hot one, though. A super-hot one if she was considering the specifics. 

“Uh, Jiwoo, you might wanna loosen up before you make your coffee explode.”

Jiwoo glanced down at the white-knuckled grip she had on her mug and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m just a little bit shaken up. That assignment was way too much of a close call than I would have liked,” she lied, not wanting to risk the possibility of her gay thoughts being exposed.

Sooyoung nodded, understanding across her face. “I could tell. I actually thought you passed out when you were done with it. It kinda worried me, y’know? I’ve seen enough soap-operas making unconscious people come to but... I didn’t think I was qualified enough to actually put it into practice,” she jested, playfully.

“Jeez, you’re too nice,” groaned Jiwoo, “Especially considering I straight up yelled in your face. Are you _sure_ you’re not some kind of axe-murderer trying to lure me in with fancy coffee and niceness?” Jiwoo said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at Sooyoung who chokes on her coffee mid-sip. 

“I-I swear it’s nothing like that!”

Jiwoo quirked a brow. She was only kidding. She didn’t think it would actually end up flustering Sooyoung, who looked like the type who’d do the flustering herself. Jiwoo was elated. Now she wouldn’t be the only one at a loss for words. 

 _Not so smooth now, huh?_   

“Uh huh, sure, Sooyoung. I totally forgot about stranger danger. I should be more careful next time,” she gasped, leaning back on her chair in mock despair. If there was one thing Jiwoo knew how to do right, it was to ham it up. Besides, the prospect of Sooyoung being some dangerous mastermind was long gone, especially with how blushy she had gotten.

Sooyoung ran a hand through her hair, pouting. “Ah, gosh, I thought you were cute, okay? I just wanted to talk to you properly…” she trailed off, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks.

 _Oof_. Jiwoo definitely felt that. She definitely got played. Sooyoung _was_ dangerous. Too dangerous for Jiwoo’s gay heart to handle. She should have _known_ not to let her guard down.  

“Oh.” 

“Yeah,  _oh_.”  

Jiwoo didn’t know what possessed her to do what she did next but she did. And it was totally worth it to see the look on Sooyoung’s face.   

“Can I have your phone, Sooyoung? Unlocked please.”

“Uh, you’re not gonna run off with it, are you?”

“After all we’ve been through during this past half hour? Of course not,” Jiwoo teased.

Sooyoung slid her phone across the table. Jiwoo picked it up carefully. With a few quick swipes, she slid it back. Despite the unusually calm exterior she had on, Jiwoo was in the midst of a crisis in the back of her mind. She watched as Sooyoung took back her phone and inspected it for anything out of the ordinary. Jiwoo expected her to scoff and delete her number then and there, because _there was no way Sooyoung was actually interested in her, right? Right? This had to be some kind of sick joke._

But when Sooyoung’s face turned a cherry red, Jiwoo knew she had been proven wrong. Yet again. _Gosh darn, her and her stupid assumptions. Sooyoung seemed to blow them all out of the water and they'd been talking for less than an hour._  

“Um, so, call me if you have the time. I owe you for today. Like seriously. Coffee on me next time, alright?”

If Jiwoo was being honest, she had no idea where this confidence was coming from. She didn’t bother thinking about it too much either, because it was damn well working for her.

“Yeah! Uh— I mean sure. Great. Cool.”

“Thanks for the coffee, Sooyoung! Your— “ 

Jiwoo paused mid-reply. Her phone was buzzing in her pocket. Her brows furrowed as she saw the steady stream of notifications blow up her phone. Forty unread messages. _Yikes_.

Luckily, it was only Jungeun but _unluckily,_ it also happened to be an SOS. Or in other words, Jungeun forgetting to send her work in on time. She sighed. 

“Sooyoung I think I have to go now. From the looks of it, my friend thought it’d be a good idea to flake on her assignment.”

If the pout on her face was any indication, Sooyoung almost looked disappointed. Now Jiwoo really didn’t want to leave. “I’d really like to hangout longer, but my friend is also my roommate so she knows where I sleep and I have to be alive to buy you coffee!” Jiwoo huffed, puffing out her cheeks. 

That got the laugh she was aiming for. Sooyoung reached out to pat her head, still chuckling. “And I’d like you to be alive to do that, cutie,” she replied, easily.

 _Darnnit_ , just when Jiwoo thought she’d catch a break from all the blushing, Sooyoung had to go and bring out that _stupid_ , _stupid_ , _stupidly_ _attractive_   _charm_. Giving her a type of look that made Jiwoo want to melt into a puddle. And she was _still_  looking at her like that. Jiwoo really couldn’t catch a break, could she?

Sooyoung was smiling at her softly and Jiwoo just wanted to stare at her all day, preferably with a fresh cup of coffee and a slice of strawberry shortcake. But the buzzing of her phone wouldn’t let her have that.

“So…”

“So?”  

“I guess I’ll be seeing you around, right Sooyoung?”

Sooyoung reached out to tap her on the nose, prompting Jiwoo to release a not so subtle squeak. 

“Duh! No one gets away with making me the flustered one, you’re special and I’m definitely getting payback, so prepare yourself, cutie. I’ll call soon,” Sooyoung winked, having regained her charmingly suave composure. Jiwoo smiled.  

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said with a quick wave of her hand, casting one quick glance at Sooyoung over her shoulder before she was out the door.

  

* * *

  

Jiwoo smiled as the sun hit her face. The day didn’t seem so gloomy anymore. Finished assignment submitted on time, free from Professor Hardass ever clowning her, friendly banter with a gorgeous stranger who smelled like caramel and a possible date lined up for her in the future.

She whooped in joy as she twirled across the busy streets, ignoring the judging looks thrown her way because, _holy shit, she really went and got herself a date, didn't she?_

Jiwoo beamed at the thought of seeing Sooyoung’s face again, with her stupidly charming grin and a vanilla latte in her hands just for her. Jiwoo still had a lot more to know but she had the time and hopefully, Sooyoung did too. For now, they’d just have to settle with climbing up the learning curve.

_Coffee with strangers, huh? They had a long way to go from there and that’s the only way she’d have it._

 

**Author's Note:**

> um, if you got this far, thanks a bunch! feedback would be much appreciated and as always, stan loona y'all


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